Lord Brunswick enlists his old friend Egg’s help on a matter that has been troubling Arsakin, the treasurer. Apparently fish and game export has declined in the regions around the Snakemoor Swamp and he suspected foul play or nefarious schemes set in play.

In Which The Dead Rise Along The River...

As the end of days looms, what happens after that?

A world embroiled in a seemingly neverending and world shattering battle with the Arch Lich, Borealis, her lieutenant’s forces are on the door step of LemonGrove. But will a rising power prove to be a source of help in this conflict, or just another calamity to be unleashed upon the world?

Synopsis
On a seemingly normal day in the town of Bridgepuddle, Appleton, the Duke of Lemongrove, has come for a visit on his way back to the LemonGrove Estate. Mainly interested in books and magical items, he pays a visit to the retired adventurer who has taken up residence in town, Archibald the Fair. There, Appleton and his entourage are greeted and welcomed into the wizard’s tower to peruse his library and talk of adventuring.

Meanwhile, at the western gates, a small gnome and his skeletal traveling companion (Peanut) are stopped at the gate, theguards barring entry for the undead thrall. Leaving him in the woods just outside of town, Zook enters Bridgepuddle, buys provisions and a cloak for Peanut while becoming fast friends with the local armor merchant, before returning to the forest. After trying and failing to regain entry with the skeleton again (this time dressed in a burlap cloak), Zook heads to Archibald’s Tower as well.

Here, he meets Egg Shen, gardener and keeper of Appleton, and they exchange pleasantries before the group returns from a shopping trip into the city. Archibald’s apprentice prepares dinner, and the motley of travelers have a pleasant but altogether awkward meal before retiring for the evening. Egg, Archibald and finally Appleton are awoken in the dark of the night to the sounds of screams and the sights of chaos, as the dockside warehouses go up in flames and the citizenry runs for its life. They have a brief skirmish with a number of the undead on the tower’s bridge before heading into the town to check on their companions.

Leaving Archibald and Bobby Bertrand behind to defend the tower, Egg and Appleton head straight to the inn, where Appleton’s retainers had retired for the night. Running through the chaos of the town besieged, they arrived without much incident and handily defeated the undead in the inn. They had arrived in time to prevent Traist Silverfrond, Oranand Bracken from becoming a part of the undead legion. But now they were faced with a town quickly becoming overrun with zombies.

Heading back outside, they met up with Zook and Peanut. After surveying the carnage, Appleton addressed his subjects (the townsfolk) and beseeched them to help out. Succeeding, he was able to gather a fairly large group and head to the docks to essentially begin a buck brigade to put out the fires that had begun ravaging the docks. As the concerned citizens did so, the door on one of the warehouses they were dousing burst open and more undead poured out, along with a particularly big, bad hulk of a zombie. Despite a few civilian casualties, the group once again proved to be quite adept at killing the undead menace.

Inside this warehouse though, they found a large obelisk. After studying it from afar, Egg touched it very briefly, sensing a great evil or menace. Zook, being a student of arcane arts decided he would do the same in order to gain insight on the strange sculpture. Meanwhile, Appleton fired a beam of magic at it, eventually destroying it. In its destruction though, a bright wave of energy radiated out from the obelisk, removing all un-life from the undead, including Peanut, who happened to be the zombie closest to the blast and was vaporized.

Having removed the threat to Bridgepuddle, Appleton and company headed back to Archibald’s tower, where the townspeople were gathering. Appleton addressed the crowd, recounting his feats of great bravery and skill to much adulation. The group spoke with Archibald, who in turn said that he would do some investigating into the source of this strange obelisk and would contact his old adventuring buddies in Acquisitions Inc to get to the bottom of it, but he would be in contact. Appleton and Egg then resumed their journey back to Lemongrove, with Zook and his new traveling companion, Bill The Zombie aka Billnut, joining them.